Street Food at its Best...

So after a late night at the bar, or just roaming around on the streets of Shanghai there is nothing better than street food (Except if your a health inspector). This late night treat that I speak of is none other than the classic "Meat on a Stick." This isn't just one meat, this is a plethora of meats on sticks. You name it, chicken (jirou), beef (nirou), lamb (yongrou), pork, hot dog looking things, even a whole variety of veggies to make it a complete balanced meal. These delicious morsels cost about 2 kuai a stick. Here I am ready to order my tasty treats on the infamous 'Tongren lu' (Don't ask why I'm there).

Did I mention these guys usually carry all of there stuff on bicycles? Not even electric ones, just ordinary rusty bicycles with a grill attached to the back and they just look for a bar to set up shop out front. Here is my roommate Lloyd making friends with another of China's finest, the rose selling old man with no teeth, while guy in the red jacket fans the flames to cook our chicken and veggies on what looks like a grill he made in his backyard (although it is the standard). So on your trip to China don't miss out on the China late night staple, as long as you don't think about how sanitary the guy in the red is when preparing or beloved "Meat on a Stick."

The Food of Kings...sort of

So here is a video of my favorite meal on a budget being made right in front of me. I walked into this place a few weeks after arriving in China, and ordered the only thing I knew how. "Niurou Mian". Beef noodles. It's a little hole in the wall place with 6 tables paired with short orange stools. But the people are friendly and the prices can't be beat. I've been coming back to this place ever since that day. They make delicious noodles for a mere 6 kaui (88 cents), and they are worth all 88 pennies. I've come to know these guys pretty well and they always say Hi to me if they see me walking past, and always smile when I walk in asking if I want "niu rou mian." But this is a must try on a visit to China.

A Clear Night Sky in Shanghai

This was one of the clearest nights in Shanghai. These aren't very common, so decided to capture my 31st floor balcony view of downtown Shanghai. Off in the distance on the left you can make out the Jinmao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center (new tallest building in Shanghai, but not for long). This picture just shows how crazy China really is... buildings as far as the eye can see.

PAYDAY!!

So another quirk of China.... payday. Nothing like getting paid a months salary with an envelope of cash. I couldn't resist spreading out all the 100 kuai notes with Mao's charming face peering up at me. The only time i'll have this much money in cash again is if I win big in Vegas or I become a drug dealer...and the likelihood of both is slim to none.

Half way around the World for Carl's Jr.

So the double decker bus dropped us off in People's Square (rather they kicked us off because you had to pay again to ride any further, explained to us by a nice Chinese girl after the ticket taker rambled to us in Chinese for 5 minutes, well only to me because the Chinese like to ignore my friend when speaking Chinese). So we decided to treat ourselves to the Carl's Jr. I had heard about a few weeks back. The first one in China and just opened 2 months before. So we walked into the mall, only to be described as the one with Hershey's store in it, and headed down to find our hometown craving (no In & Out yet).

Nothing like ordering a big juicy Western bacon w/ Cheese, fries and a 'refillable' drink! Here is my friend,Trent, enjoying some delicious crisscut fries.

During our delicious meal, I was trying to take in our whole experience. And during

this experience taking ining I noticed the Carl's Jr. cups... You would think nothing special right? Well half way around the world I have come across a slice of my home town. The all too familiar quote on the side of the cup, yup the review by the 'Orange County Register'! Nothing like coming to China, sitting down to a completely normal Carl's Jr. meal and being probably the first (ok I'm exaggerating...maybe the second) person to actually know where that quote on the side of the cup came from. Well anyway, I took advantage of my free refill and we left, having throughly enjoyed our tasty, yet expensive meal (38 kuai).

Sightseeing on a Budget...

So last weekend a buddy from Concordia (the only one living over in Puxi with me) decided to go exploring last Friday. Usually this just consists of us asking each other repeatedly what we should do, and neither one of us having any idea what to do. Usually we try to look up something on the internet, which doesn't turn out well. Usually it is some super touristy thing or something that costs a lot of money (usually one in the same). This time however we had a plan, and a rather good one at that...in theory. I had noticed a bunch of double decker public busses on the streets lately, and after getting a friendly tip from a Concordia alumni who works at my school I had figured out where to find that said bus.

So after meeting up and getting lunch at the usual spot (Metro City Mall Food Court) we headed off on our exploration quest. I went to the place where I thought the busses would be, a rather confusing bus depot. However, to our sad realization, the double decker bus we sought was no where to be found. After wandering aimlessly for a few moments our new "master plan" was to sit on the street and see if one drove by and then try to follow it to the nearest bus stop. Well ok, we thought of this plan out of desperation, so it was really a back up plan/the best thing we could come up with in 5 minutes. This was quite unsuccessful, but I did come up with my next photo montage, weird stuff on bikes. This was my first shot.

So anyway, we decided to head back to my friends place which was close by to think of a better plan and look it up on the internet. Well to our over joyous surprise we saw one of those darned busses at the back of the bus depot! We hopped on and in 15 mins we were being whisked away on our double decker sightseeing tour. And the best part of all this, is it costs a mere 3 kuai for about an hour of driving around and taking pictures. Better yet, there was no annoying announcer trying to explain every little nicknack on the road. So 3 kuai later we ended up in People's Square for the dinner of Champions....Carl's Jr.

Another one of those, What should I do moments...

On this particular day I had just bought some new dress shoes at the newly opened 'Big Toe' shoe store. And by newly opened this place had been completely gutted, renovated, and fully stocked up and running in what had to have been less than 10 days. On the walk back to the bus I had one a "Um, what should I do?" moments in my head. And this is what I saw that put that thought in my head...

Yes, it is what it looks like. A guy laying on the ground, eyes closes, in an awkward position that doesn't look like he is sleeping kinda of way, and a slight wound on his head. So upon approaching the scene I noticed at least 2 dozen bike riders look, stare, then ride away. O did I mention the guy in the black must have been there for a while because he is selling sweet potatoes on his makeshift oil barrel oven? So, yes I was confused on what to do, stop and nudge the guy? Ask him if he is okay in my non existent Chinese? Or just act like the locals and walk right by? Well none of the above, I took it upon myself to act like the look like a local tourist who lives here. Yup I walked right by, turned, stared for a bit, then decided it would be a good picture to share as my experience in China, and took a picture (quickly though). So now it is on the Internet for all to wonder and think about the same thing that I thought. Is that guy really dead?....

**Please don't think down on me, I am wary after hearing about the scams in China where no one will stop to help someone, and the one tourist who does gets blamed for injuring that person...Unlikely in this case, but I'm not falling for that one... ***

Hello, may I take your order?

After hearing about a place that has good burritos from Trent, I decided to check it out the next day. It is a place called, 'Pizza to Go.' Odd name for a place that sells burritos. It turns out it sells much more than burritos, sandwiches, cheese fries, fish & chips, hot dogs, pizza, baked pasta, nachos AND burritos! Well it turns out this place is the epitome of a whole in the wall. So after ordering our burrito combo with chips (21 rmb), we were waiting for our order. After admiring the size of a huge rabbit in front of the shop, the lady calls us over because our burritos are done. She is on the phone and now trying to convince me in Chinese (with my little to no Chinese) that she wants me to take an order. The person on the other side of the phone is obviously American, from the accent and probably has no clue who is taking her 12" Veggie and Hawaiian pizza order. This is as the lady shop owner is trying to tell me what information to get from the customer. O, and I forgot to mention that this was after the owner said they take orders in English, just ask for Stephen. So I wonder to myself, who is Stephen, and where is he to take this order? Maybe it was just the name of the last expat that happened to be there when a call came in. Next time she'll tell the customers, "We take orders in English, just talk to Brian."

I hope I get a discount for this the next time I have a burrito craving...

Out of the HOTEL!!

I have finally moved out of Qian Dao Hu Hotel, my home for 2 months. No more fuwuyuan knocking on my door in the middle of my afternoon nap. No more paying 100 kuai to do my laundry. No more slow internet... But welcome fast internet, a laundry machine, and 31st floor of downtown pudong located in the middle of the Xujiahui shopping center.

Oh China....

So I have been in China for 2 months now... So what interesting things have I seen since I've been here? Well from what I remember, I saw a child peeing on the sidewalk one day as I almost stepped in the mini river he was making from his little 'slit' pants. Then a few steps later I saw a rooster with a leash tied to an umbrella. When things like this happen I just think to myself.... "oh China." The photo for this posting will be a man pushing what had to have been 30 foot long metal girders on a bike. Seemed slightly dangerous.

Well what else has happened since I arrived... I would sum it up by saying, "A whole lot." I bought a bike for 200 Rmb (30 bucks) and got it stolen. Been in the Shanghai World Financial Center (Tallest building in Shanghai). Seen a few pagodas, a few monkeys, a few bicycle accidents, and a whole lot of bicycles.

The Arrival and the First 4 days

Upon landing in China, the first day of the next year began. I was a little scared to pass through the heat reading scanning area as I had a cold and was little afraid that Communist China would assume i was trying to traffic the H1N1 virus into their country. After successfully entering the country of China, my next obstacle was to get my 4 pieces of total luggage to catch the Maglev into the city to meet my good buddy Trent. After not being able to get the calling card to work in order to call him I decided to go ahead and venture forth. I purchased my 40 rmb ticket and boarded the train. After a quick 8 min ride at over 261 mph, I was in the city in no time. And as luck would have it, a friendly face was waiting for me. After 2 subway rides later, we finally arrived at his house, my temporary housing.

The apartment was clean, spacious, but I would say rather uncomfortable. As all of the furniture was hardwood, it looked nice, but it might as well have been made of stone. As the wooden futon was going to be me bed for the next 3 nights, I was hoping that this furniture might at least have an added benefit of correcting my posture.

One of my first missions was to go to the 'Modern Electronics Mall' I had read about on Shanghai Expat. Upon our first trip, we entered a 3 story building jam packed with counter upon counter filled with any electronic device you could think off. Anything from tiny usb memory card readers to 3 foot remote control helicopters, LCD TVs, cable connectors, and what I had made the trip for...a whole floor of cell phones. New and old, legit and counterfeit, and more counterfeit phones. After perusing what had to be 30 cases of phones, and trying to ask for prices, I settled on a touch screen LG KP500 'Cookie'. After trying to bargain fairly heavily, I was told by one vendor in English, "I don't like you." And was denied my phone of choice. After trying to bargain at 3 more vendors, with none of them budging more than 50 RMB, I finally found a vendor that offered me a "2 day old' phone for 200 RMB off and finally another 50 RMB discount. I walked out with a phone for about $100, hope it doesn't break...

The Departure

So my last night in the United States was spent in a hotel in LA in order to catch my 7am flight to China. My last meal was a nice fatty burrito from Mexican food place called Paco's Tacos. After riding the shuttle to LAX my last minutes spent with Holly was in a Starbucks. I was quite sad as I looked into the teary eyes Holly one last time as I walked past the security checkpoint. The flight from LA to Vancouver, and then around the world to Shanghai was long, but seemed short as it was filled with half sleeping and multiple multiple movies. Flying around the world was the easy part... the actual arrival in Zhongguo (China) was an entirely another affair...